Hacking TouchPod, Sakura, iTouchDS?

[The Jackal]

What's up with all the different firmwares? I've just recently adpoted a DS Lite and a M3 DS REAL and I dual-boot TouchPod and Sakura. But I still don't really know why there's so many different firmwares around. There are some cosmetic changes, support and compatibility-differencies, but it's still confusing. And yeah, I've read a couple of FAQs and searched around a bit, but I still can't see the big picture. Isn't one major firmware enough?
Are they all made by the M3-team and official?

 

[superbob]

It can be confusing but it's mainly for historical reasons.
At first there was only TouchPod (The classic M3Real).
The M3 Real was more expensive than other carts (like CycloDS), so they decided to release a new cart with a new loader (~ firmware) called iTouchDS that was cheaper and had less fonctionnality (like GBA playing).
Then the M3 Team decided to release a new cart (M3Sakura) which was in fact the same cart as the M3 Real but with a different loader (Sakura 'GUI').
The M3 Sakura GUI has a lot of bult-in multimedia functions, it was co-developped by the author of Moonshell which is an excellent multimedia homebrew player.
All these carts and loader are officially developped by the M3 Team (there is one sub-team in China and another in Japan if I'm right).
To sum up, there are 2 carts : M3 Real and iTouchDS, and there are 3 loaders, TouchPod and Sakura for M3 Real, and the iTouchDS loader.
Officially TouchPod and Sakura shouldn't work on iTouchDS and iTouchDS loader shouldn't work on M3 Real, but some guys have done it many times before (sometimes with hacking the loaders) ...
The difference between all them is that iTouchDS is said to be better for homebrew compatibility, TouchPod better for commercial game compatibility, and sakura has an owesome GUI with builtin multimedia playing but has a game compat. that is sometimes lower (need some cheat hacks with last games) and homebrew compat. is also lower than the two other.
In my opinion, when homebrew compat will be as good on sakura than on touchpod, touchpod could be left behind, because sakura is way better in terms of gui and multimedia playing.

I hope you understand better now.

 

[The Jackal]

I hope you understand better now.

I sure do, thanks for the great feedback

 

[Dionysus]

I hope you understand better now.

I sure do, thanks for the great feedback

Yeh you took the words right outa my mouth

hombrew for life

 

[dsrules]

sakura has an owesome GUI with builtin multimedia playing but has a game compat. that is sometimes lower (need some cheat hacks with last games)

just to clear things up abit...iTouch, Touchpod, Sakura, all 3 have the same game compatiability, if their firmwares are released at around the same time of course

 

[superbob]

sakura has an owesome GUI with builtin multimedia playing but has a game compat. that is sometimes lower (need some cheat hacks with last games)

just to clear things up abit...iTouch, Touchpod, Sakura, all 3 have the same game compatiability, if their firmwares are released at around the same time of course

Yes of course, and that's why I said that touchpod had a better game compat than the other, because it is always updated first (there is always a few days between the updates).

 

[Rbox]

, because sakura is way better in terms of gui and multimedia playing.

Sakura completely locks up when I try to play an MP3 from a 3gig folder. Touchpod plays it just fine.

 

[DeltaBurnt]

, because sakura is way better in terms of gui and multimedia playing.

Sakura completely locks up when I try to play an MP3 from a 3gig folder. Touchpod plays it just fine.

That proves nothing since this is the first case I've heard of this happening.